Looking for 5.25“ alignment disk.,

[Jan1980]

Hello.

I am looking for an 5.25“ analog alignment disk Dysan 224/2a or equivalent to adjust my tandon tm100-2a floppy drives properly.
Perhaps, anybody can sell me alignment disk ?!


Thx

Jan

[ldkraemer]

Those alignment floppy's are hard to locate. You can format a fresh floppy on a known good
Floppy Drive that is properly aligned and use that floppy to adjust your drive that is out of
alignment. It's not as easy as using the Alignment Floppy with an O'Scope, but it can be
done and it works. It just takes a bit of patience, as I've done it with success.

For the Tandon TM-100-x, make 100% sure that the Door Hinge isn't broken. Those Floppy
Drives with the small white Nylon Pins for the Hinge points are well known to break the hinge
as they put pressure on the side of the part and break it. I replace those white Nylon Pins
with a full length piece of Brass Rod (Brazing Rod from local Welding Supply Store). That
is a permanent fix. If you need the Hinge Part, those are sourced on ThingIVerse. Search
for TANDON TM100 on ThingIverse.
If you just need a couple, I can send you a few by USPS for a few US dollars plus postage,
or you can have a Local 3D printer guy print a few.

Thanks.

Larry

[Stone]

Those alignment floppy's are hard to locate. You can format a fresh floppy on a known good
Floppy Drive that is properly aligned and use that floppy to adjust your drive that is out of
alignment. It's not as easy as using the Alignment Floppy with an O'Scope, but it can be
done and it works. It just takes a bit of patience, as I've done it with success.

Any chance you could walk us through this process?

[ldkraemer]

Stone,
HAHAHAHAHA! YEP! I GET IT. You want to 100% disassemble a Floppy drive and want me to
reassemble it. Then Align it for you with no Alignment Floppy.

This site is A VERY INTERESTING READ!

I'd rather show you how I use my HIGH DOLLAR RAM Tester to locate a bad RAM Chip in an older
C64 Commodore. I've repaired lots of those that the Commodore Octopus Dongle wouldn't diagnose
properly. Too bad Gary Slaughbaug isn't around to verify it.


Larry

[Stone]

C'mon, Larry, you said 'It's not as easy as using the Alignment Floppy with an O'Scope, but it can be done and it works.' You didn't say it was an outright ballbuster!

[alank2]

I did this with the B: on my Kaypro about a month ago. It was sensitive and would work okay one minute and not the next. I put my scope on the test points and measured the waveform peak to peak. In my case, when it was off, the amplitude would change for each rotation of the disk! I loosened the three allen screws and used a flat blade screwdriver carefully to adjust it. I found that there was a place where the amplitude did not wobble even though the signal strength was not as strong. There was a balance to be struck between track 1 and track 40 as well where you make the strength as good as it can be at both while not dealing with the wobble. After the changes, the drive works perfectly every time now! To make the disk, I used a bulk eraser to erase it and then formatted it on my 5170 360K drive.